Although this keeper isn't tall, dark and handsome, she'll still get all giddy about it. That's because this birthday surprise is a 3-D, pop-up, mixed media, interactive card from Mason-based Up With Paper.

"We now have more than 300 everyday pop-up [cards]," President George White says. "But the goal for each is the same: to make each of our products a 'keeper' that senders will be proud to send and recipients, excited to receive."

The company's goal is to create a product that will be kept and treasured rather than thrown away and forgotten, White says. Each card features unique paper engineering techniques, original design and clever use of mixed media. For example, their "Beach Chairs" card not only features pop-up beach chairs and a fun beach scene, but the chairs are made out of real beach chair material.

The company launched as PopShots in Connecticut in 1978, but after CM Paula Company acquired it, the corporation's headquarters moved to Mason in 2005. The CM Paula Company employs roughly 60 people in its corporate office, approximately 20 of which are dedicated to Up With Paper, with the balance shared with its two sister divisions.

"Mason is an ideal location for a consumer products company," White says. "[It's] a great location from which to ship, as we can be in most stores in the country in three days or less and to 99 percent in four days or less."

Up With Paper ships internationally, too, with retailers in more than 30 countries stocking its cards. These countries include everywhere from Canada to Guatemala and Venezuela and from China and Japan to Germany and France. Even the Australians down under play a part in the pop-up fun.

A little trick to their agility in the international market? The same card is sold around the world, as language is not a barrier, White says. "Most of our cards feature multiple message tags, which can be adapted by the user for the correct occasion," he adds. "And all include a blank tag that can be written on in any language for a truly personalized message."

Because this is our birthday issue, White shares which birthday cards are the best sellers at Up With Paper: balloons popping up out of a box. With the help of multiple message tags, this card makes for a perfect fit for a birthday, "congratulations" or any type of celebration card for all ages.

"Floating Butterflies" displays delicately cut white butterflies that "pop up and seem to flit around the card," White says. Multiple message tags make this a best seller for birthdays, Mother's Day, "thinking of you" and even "get well."

Jungle animals come alive on "Jungle Birthday," Up With Paper's best-selling juvenile birthday card. And the lion's yarn mane adds an extra touch of fun to the not-so-traditional card.

"Goldfish Birthday" also makes for a memorable gift with its "colorful goldfish on a spring behind a piece of acetate popped up to look like a fishbowl," White says.For more springy animals, check out "Birthday Monkeys." The monkeys are out of the barrel on this card as they celebrate with presents and balloons.

White also recommends "Balloon & Cake Explosion," from Up With Paper's Panoramics series. This little card features presents within the present as various pull tabs make gifts open. For the Orlando Bloom or Johnny Depp fan in your life, check out "Pirate Birthday," another card in the Panoramics series. The pull tab on this card makes "the pirate ship glide across the ocean on the card floor to the birthday party on the island, complete with little pirates, sails and a pirate flag," White says

From the new "Turning Points" greeting card line, "Hippo Birthday" offers a pull tab that opens the hippo's mouth, revealing a present inside. Simultaneously, the pull tab makes a frog with a cupcake on his head pop out of the water.

White says there are more than 100 other birthday cards, as birthday is its leading caption. (Sixty percent of "everyday" cards sent are birthday, he says.) Check out all the Up With Paper cards at UpWithPaper.com, or to see them in person, visit M Hopple, Natorp's, Borders or the Kenwood Barnes & Noble.

Editor's Note: This story topic/company spotlight was suggested to Cincy Chic through a recent reader survey.

PHOTO CREDITS
Photographer: Neysa Ruhl Photography
Model: Amy Storer-Scalia
Location: The McAlpin

Amy Storer-Scalia
		About the author:
		Amy Storer-Scalia, a Cincinnati native and current Ft. Thomas resident, is the editor in chief and publisher of Cincy Chic. Send her an e-mail at astorer@cincychic.com.
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Last update: 11-01-2010 14:48

Published in : Magazine Items, Feature Stories